Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Technique of the...every so often

Jef posted this comment about my unlock the Background layer tip:

"Hi Dave...This was a really useful tip. Makes it much easier for simple quick edits.What I'd really like though, is to change the default way in which Photoshop opens the picture. Instead of having a locked background layer, I want it to automatically duplicate the background keeping the bottom layer as a normal locked background and the top layer and an unlocked duplicate.

Any suggestions for how to accomplish this one?"

It's actually pretty simple (thankfully)

First, start with a document open, then create and record an Action that only has one step: duplicate layer. Stop recording.

Second, go to File>Scripts>Script Events Manager.

Check the box: "Enable Events to Run Scripts/Actions"

From the Photoshop Event menu, choose Open Document

Click the Action radio button and choose the action you recorded (duplicate layer), from the Set where you saved it

Click the Add button

Click Done and from now on, every time you open a document you will get a duplcated copy above the Background.

If you ever want to stop this from happening, return to the Script Events Manager and remove the event or uncheck the Enable box at the top of the dialog.

Needless to say, this is just one of many things you can do with Script Events Manager.